TV Reviews : ‘Those She Left Behind’: Husband, Newborn Baby

When Sue Grimes (Mary Page Keller) goes into labor a month prematurely and then dies of an aneurysm in the hospital, “Those She Left Behind” (Channels 4, 36 and 39 at 9 p.m. tonight) include her husband, Scott (Gary Cole), and a newborn daughter.

Call it “One Man and a Baby.”

The infant is a non-stop crier, and Scott has no understanding of her needs. Though he knows how foolish it is to blame the baby for his wife’s death, he does so anyway. Finally, when his own lack of time, training and talent for parenthood is all too obvious, he considers relinquishing the girl for adoption.

At this point, Michael O’Hara’s script really begins to sound like something different. We hear that not everyone is cut out to be a parent and that Scott’s most courageous course might be to give up the baby.

The movie soon changes its tune. Scott discovers fatherly feelings inside himself, after all. The script finally makes a persuasive case that giving up the baby would have been an evasion on Scott’s part.

Because of this turn of events, the movie is certainly warmer and maybe even truer. But it’s also more hackneyed. We’ve heard this part of the story before. Nor is it surprising when Scott begins to take up romantically with his steadfast friend and employee (Joanna Kerns).

The script doesn’t dwell unduly on the new romance, and it makes it clear that it’s Scott who will stay home with the kid. This is an awfully enlightened movie, with knowing direction by Waris Hussein and generally capable performances (including one, by Colleen Dewhurst as Scott’s prickly mother-in-law, that’s much more than capable).

It lacks only that extra dollop of imagination that might have lifted it into another league.